With every tuppenny-ha'penny laptop and netbook coming with a built-in web cam, and laptops taking an ever larger chunk of the computer market, it’s probably fair to say business ain't want it used to be when it comes to flogging external webcams. So has Philips' new SPC1330NC Webcam Pro got what it takes to make it a worthwhile …

Does it work with Linux or Mac?

@Alex Wright

Learn to read:

"While Philips makes no mention of Mac or Linux support – the software bundle is Windows only – the SPC1330 worked out of the box with Skype on both a MacBook Pro and an old Advent laptop running Ubuntu. Certainly, the MacBook's iSight camera performed better than the Dell's, but it was still left in the dust by the SPC1330."

Honestly, I don't know why some people bother.

Still, good image quality, and as my old Philips camera doesn't work on NT6 or above, I might have to have a shufty.

@Next time

Digital zoom

Great to see GNU/Linux testing...

...but if the reviewer could be encouraged to open a terminal shell, type 'lsusb' and report the chip in the device? Then non Ubuntu users would know whether or not the device is likely yot work with other distros.

And a bottle of snake oil

Unless you took still images of a picture of a painting, I don't see the "consistently fine performance." A 75% rating is generous for a product that's ugly, takes bad pictures, and has false specifications all over the front of the box. I would have returned it for a refund.